Federal News Radio interviews each of the finalists for the Partnership for Public Service's Service to America Medals. These awards are given out each year to the federal employees who exemplify what it means to be a public servant.

Part of the attraction of federal service is that employees feel they're helping
others. The work of Jeffrey Rogers, a retired program manager at the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), goes one step further — he helped
to develop technology that saves lives and improves the treatment of victims of
bomb blasts.

While at DARPA, Rogers created a device, known as the Blast Gauge, that measures
the effects of bomb blasts experienced by service members. This allowed
medics to a better assess of the levels of exposure the service member received in
order to better provide the necessary medical assistance.

"On his own initiative, Jeffrey Rogers saw a problem and came up with a solution
that gets the data that we need to better understand the brain damage we can't
see," said retired Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the chief executive officer of One Mind
for Research, a nonprofit that deals with brain injuries and mental illness.

For his work in developing the Blast Guage, the Partnership for Public
Service recently named Rogers as one of the finalists for the 2014
Science and Environment Medal. The award recognizes federal
employees who have made important contributions in the area of science and
environment. This includes biomedicine, economics, energy, information technology,
meteorology, resource conservation and space.

Getting to know Jeffrey Rogers

Federal News Radio asked each of the Sammies finalists five questions about
themselves. Here are Rogers' responses:

What would be the title of your autobiography and why?
"Hard Work = Easy Fun — How to Achieve Success and a Balanced Life." This is
essentially how I have lived my life and feel it's been quite enjoyable!

The Science and Environment Medal is just one of the Samuel J. Heyman Service
to America Medals (Sammies) presented annually by the Partnership for Public
Service. View a photo gallery of all the Sammies nominees.